Buon Viaggio: 2 days in Tuscany

This post has been in my draft for too long. I should have posted its since, well, more than a year ago :v Time may pass, but memories last.

Maliha and I visited Tuscany on 20-22 Nov 2015. We left Trento on Friday aftenoon by Blablacar. Oh Blablacar is so amazing! We only spent 15 euro for Trento-Florence while it would cost us more than 30 if we took train. Then we would use this service quite often. I'll talk about this service in another post.

#1: FLORENCE

Since it was already dark when we reached Florence (a.ka. Firenze), we spent 2 nights there with a whole Saturday was spent to explore the city. Florence is the capital city of Tuscany and considered as the birthplace of Renaissance [source: wikipedia]. It has 2 most famous art galleries, Uffizi and Galleria dell'Accademia. Based on preliminary research done by Maliha, it seemed not possible to visit both galleries in the same day because both are big and famous and have too many visitors and we would waste our time in line. So, basically we must choose one and we decided it would be Uffizi.

Uffizi is open at 8 a.m. and we planned to reach it around 7.30 to avoid the long line. It was the earliest visit I had with Maliha :v And right, we were the second and third visitors after a Korean guy. Thank God I had an apple for my breakfast.

It was an amazing place full of typical Renaissance art, such as sculptures and paintings. I can't talk much about it because I'm not an actual art observer. But there you can find paintings by Botticelli, Michaelangelo, and even Da Vinci. One of the good things was that we were allowed to take pictures inside the gallery.

A hall inside Uffizi

Maliha was exploring seriously while I was busy taking pictures. Sorry, not a fan of classical art :p

Doni Tondo by Michaelangelo Buonarroti

We left Uffizi around 10.30 and it was raining outside. We were actually too hungry to walk but it was still too early for lunch that not many restaurants were open. So we killed time by walking to some tourist attractions while looking for a place we could sit for a lunch.

Piazza di Santa Croce

Vegetarian pizza (me) and Lasagna (Maliha) for lunch

Then that we were fully energized, we walked to the main square of Florence, Piazza della Signoria, and the famous Duomo (cathedral). I love Florence. I feel like every single path in that city is so historical yet lovely. I think the rain somehow brought such a peaceful atmosphere that made me feel comfortable.

The famous David statue in Piazza della Signoria. Sorry, I intentionally cropped the lower body.

Piazza della Repubblica

The main square of Florence: Piazza della Signoria. In the background is Palazzo Vecchio.

Ah, if you have ever played Assassin's Creed II, you may notice that some scenes took place in this city. Just look at the Duomo's pictures and you'll remember. The Duomo is so different from other duomos I had seen so far (mostly in northern Italy). Although it's said to have gothic style (source: Wikipedia), this architecture style of this duomo is much different from Milano Duomo that I visited previously (read my older post here). I'm not an architecture student but I still think this building is stunning.

Me, under the rain with Duomo in the background

Il duomo di Firenze

It was around 2 pm and we started feeling cold and tired so we decided to go back to our hostel to get our jacket and a bit rest. On our way to the hostel, we intentionally passed an open market. I don't remember which market we visited because there were some markets in Florence. What I can remember is it was located along a street. The place somehow reminded me of Malioboro (in Yogyakarta) with people trying to attract your attention to buy their stuffs. There were stores and street vendors mostly selling leather goods and souvenirs. 

Florence is well-known for its best quality leather goods. I don't need to tell you that the price must be unaffordable for a student like me. If you have good eyes and knowledge in distinguishing leather material, you may be able to purchase good quality original leather bag at best price. But if you are like me, have no sense of shopping and more importantly no money but still want to buy good stuff for your mom, you can desperately bargain with the street vendor for his fake leather bag (I got 2 bags for 25 euro and the quality is ok).

After wearing more 'proper outfit' (who on earth walk in one layer cardigan during autumn!?), we headed to our next destination, Piazzale Micheangelo. Before that, we went to the Central Station to meet Linh, my Vietnamese friend, who coincidentally also visited Florence that day. Three of us decided to take bus to our destination because the location was on the hill and Maliha and I did mind walking up. There were some bus lines going to that place from the station and they were easy to recognize since tourist-looking passengers would get onto the bus. But it's easier to ask Google Map. 

In Italy, you don't usually buy bus ticket onboard. You should buy the ticket at a "Tabaccheria" and validate it in the bus. However, it has been a general secret for people who live in Italy (or at least some friends of mine told me) that nobody really buys and validates the ticket, except in Northern Italy where I lived. More southern you go, you'll find it more often. The consequence of not having a validated ticket is that the officer may fine you (around 20-30 euro) ONLY IF there is an sudden inspection. Why do I tell you this thing? Because Maliha and I got onto the bus without ticket hahaha. We intentionally did that but I wouldn't recommend anyone.

Then, there we were, at a place where we could see the whole city just 30 minutes before sunset. 

Maliha and I with fascinating view of Florence

Wefie with new member (Linh)

After witnessing the daylight fading slowly, we walked down back to the city. The last place on our list was Palazzo Pitti, supposedly an old palace that had been transformed into museums. We didn't see any point of visiting museums in the night tho and the museums might have been close, but we still reached that place. Unfortunately, the piazza (square) in front of the palace was lack of light and my smartphone's camera wasn't good enough to take pictures in darkness, so I don't attach the picture of the palace in this post. 

We just spent around 10 minutes to relax on the grass at Piazza Pitti and then left for dinner. We crossed on the famous Ponte Vecchio (old bridge) when heading to the city center. This huge bridge has some stores on both of its sides. I didn't even realize I was crossing a bridge because it just looked like an ordinary pathway. Unfortunately (again), I forgot to take a picture of it :v

We looked for places recommended by TripAdvisor and they seemed to be loved by everyone because all of them were crowded. I eventually didn't get anything because most of them either had a long queue or didn't have vegetarian menu. Only Linh grabbed something, while Maliha and I ended up eating Indonesian chicken soup at my Indonesian friend's place which we visited after that :D

So, Linh got to come back to his hostel while Maliha and I still had the very last destination, Mba Vera's, to bring her soysauce :v It's a friend's gift from Indonesia and I promised him to give it to her. Funny thing happened when I waited for the bus directing to her house. We had been waiting at the bus stop that Mba Vera told me, the stop right in front of the station. After waiting for several minutes, I doubted the bus actually stopped there so I checked on the bus schedule and I couldn't find the line number. 

Then I saw a bus coming but instead of stop at the stop where I stood, it came to the one "just next to" my stop. Well, I'd been living in a small city where no stops were built side by side like that. I intuitively checked on the schedule at that stop and found nothing again. I thought I had to ask someone, thing I avoided the most because of my limited Italian. A passenger told me it might be at the opposite side of the station, so I went there and got disappointed again. Then, I noticed another stop at the opposite of the first stop I waited at. I checked on the schedule and still couldn't find my bus. Oh God, I was so frustrated. Then I ventured myself to ask a street vendor, who actually only spoke Italian and Chinese, but Thank God she knew the way. She pointed the stop right next to  the last stop I checked! And you know, when the bus came and we got onto it, we noticed the the stop was actually the last stop of its line and the bus then came to "the first bus stop I came to". Crazy. I spent my time for running here and there and eventually came back to the beginning. Later I knew from Mba Vera that there was probably a maintenance on the bus line so it didn't stop at the usual place and maybe I didn't see the note because it was dark. I didn't understand actually but apparently that's why even Google Map couldn't help me that time.

Anyway, it was an exhausting day. And we still had another full day ahead...

Galleria della Uffizi from across Arno river. Ponte vecchio was supposed to be several meters on the right-hand side (no picture unfortunately)

(TO BE CONTINUED)
Write more to you soon. But I give you some sneak peeks :)

#2: LUCCA

We left Florence for Lucca in early morning. It took around 90 minutes by trenitalia and costed 7.50 euro. We reached the city at 8.  Although sunshine welcomed us that day, the temperature dropped to 4 °C.

Lucca is a small city at the west side of Florence. It was Sunday morning and the city was super quiet. Yet very lovely! Unfortunately, we didn't do some research as we did for Florence, so basically we just walked around as navigated by Google Maps.

One of the famous spots is Piazza dell'Anfiteatro. It is a vast oval square that is known as trace of Roman Amphiteather. However, you shouldn't expect to see the real amphiteather there because the city only maintains the original shape and nowadays it is occupied by shops and restaurants. Nevertheless, an elliptical square is rather unique and you will rarely find it ouside of Italy.

Piazza dell'Anfiteatro

According to https://www.discovertuscany.com/, Lucca is called as "the city of a hundred churches". And I found it true because we saw a lot of churches. They might not be as huge as the one in Duomo di Fireze, but they still represent enchanting architecture.

Basilica di San Frediano

Chiesa di San Michele in Foro

Another thing I found special from Lucca was the wall encircling the old city and people could walk along it. It is called Passeggiata delle Mura Urbane. The passage atop the wall was wide enough with trees on the both sides. There were also some benches which I em thankful of because I often stopped for a little rest. If I lived in that city, I would go there often just to sit and read a book (and eat chips).

Posing at Passeggiata delle Mura Urbane

Cute bookstore

Before we left Lucca. we had lunch at a unique cheap (and apparently famous) restaurant near the station named La Tana dell'Orco. Of course, we found it on Tripadvisor. I found the place cute because of its interior. The owner hung the dining papers used by their costumers as decoration. The costumers left their drawing or writing on it and some papers have rather funny notes. The food was okay but the service took quite long although we were the only costumers that time. Overall, it was a nice experience! Aaand we were ready for the next destination: the leaning tower!!

La Tana dell'Orco

#3: PISA

When I was a kid, I used to like reading the encyclopedia about countries and places around the world. It wasn't hard enough to remember 7 wonders of the world. I know there are several versions of 7 wonders but from what I acknowledged when I was 7, The Leaning Tower of Pisa was one of them. Who could expect that 13 years later the real tower would be just before my eyes!?

Touching the famous leaning tower

Pisa is only around 30 minutes from Lucca by train. It costed us 3.50 euro. We bought tickets to Pisa Centrale station but eventually got off at Pisa S.Rossore station, just 1 stop before Centrale. I saw most people on the train getting off there so I asked the man in charge if it was better to get off there if we wanted to walk to the leaning tower. And he said yes. And we took the right decision because it only took 5 minutes walk to reach the tower while we could have had to walk around 20 minutes if we had stopped at Centrale station.

My intention on that visit was to take a picture like below. It wasn't easy tho! The perfect distance to take picture with the tower was from a path and the path was full of people trying various poses with the tower. Even we needed to wait (or queue?) to get the best spot. Anyway, I made it eventually!! woohoo!

Favorit pose! I should have taken more crazier poses

After strolling around the leaning tower area, we bought some keychains as souvenirs from the street vendor. I could get 1 euro each. It was a good deal because I wouldn't have got that cheap if I'd bought them at souvenir store.

According to some seniors, not much to see in Pisa. The sightseeing will start and end at the leaning tower. So I estimated our time spent in that town only 1 hour. And I was right because an hour after I touched down at Pisa S.Rossore station, I was already on the train heading to Siena.

#4: SIENA

According to some people, Siena is one of the best Tuscanian town with the typical pavement and buildings. Unfortunately, it was already dark when we reached the city. Then I realized that visiting 3 cities in a day in the autumn was a terrible idea. The duration is too short to enjoy them all, also it's reduced by the travel time. So, we were quite in hurry to walk around the city because we only had less than 2 hours to spend before our appointment with Blablacar driver at 8 pm. Gladly, we managed to visit the famous Piazza del Campo, known as s one of Europe's greatest medieval squares, and Duomo, and other landmarks that I didn't recognize very well. 

Torre (tower) del Mangia and Palazzo (palace) publico at Piazza del Campo 

Il duomo di Siena

It was a well-spent weekend and I'm looking forward to explore other sides of beautiful Tuscany <3